"We're some local boys that have 'done good'," says John Bach, lead vocalist and banjo player for Screamin' Gulch.

The local group opened for country music duo Big and Rich in September at the Lithia Amphitheater, and has performed at the Jackson County Fair for the past three summers with Don Maddox.

"Our real claim to fame is performing with Don," Bach says.

Maddox is the last surviving member of the Maddox Brothers and Rose, known as "America's most colorful hillbilly band" from the 1930s to the 1950s. The group was based in Modesto, Calif.; Maddox now lives in Ashland.

"He's (Maddox) been calling us his backup band," Bach says. "It gives us goose bumps to hear him say that."

Screamin' Gulch formed just a few years ago with not much more than a washtub bass and a banjo. Today the lineup includes Bach, or Dillard Gulch, and the "brothers Gulch." Curtis plays washboard and drums, Kleavis plays gut bucket bass, Felix Thursday plays "gittar" and Snake Oil plays upright bass.

The band has two albums to its credit, "Trucks, Trucks, Trucks" and "Whiskey Cloud." It also is featured on a compilation album by Mental Records titled "Spare Change."

The band calls its music 99 percent hillbilly and 1 percent redemption. Hear the band's songs at myspace.com/screamingulch.